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Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the Fields Medal

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Elaine McKinnon Riehm; Frances Hoffman

A co-publication of the AMS and Fields Institute

Despite the renown of the Fields Medals,
J.C. Fields has been until now a rather obscure figure, and
recovering details about his professional activities and personal life
was not at all a simple task. This work is a triumph of persistence
with far-flung archival and documentary sources, and provides a rich
non-mathematical portrait of the man in all aspects of his life and
career. Highly readable and replete with period detail, the book sheds
useful light on the mathematical and scientific world of Fields' time,
and is sure to remain the definitive biographical study.

—Tom Archibald, Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, BC, Canada

Drawing on a wide array of archival sources,
Riehm and Hoffman provide a vivid account of Fields' life and his part
in the founding of the highest award in mathematics. Filled with
intriguing detail—from a childhood on the shores of Lake Ontario,
through the mathematics seminars of late 19th century Berlin, to the
post-WW1 years of the fragmented international mathematical
community—it is a richly textured story engagingly and sympathetically
told. Read this book and you will understand why Fields never wanted
the medal to bear his name and yet why, quite rightly, it
does.

—June Barrow-Green, Open University, Milton
Keynes, United Kingdom

One of the little-known effects of World War I was the collapse of
international scientific cooperation. In mathematics, the discord
continued after the war's end and after the Treaty of Versailles had
been signed in 1919. Many distinguished scientists were involved in the
war and its aftermath, and from their letters and papers, now almost a
hundred years old, we learn of their anguished wartime views and their
struggles afterwards either to prolong the schism in mathematics or to
end it.

J.C. Fields, the foremost Canadian mathematician of his time, was
educated in Canada, the United States, and Germany, and championed an
international spirit of cooperation to further the frontiers of
mathematics. It was during the awkward post-war period that
J.C. Fields established the Fields Medal, an international prize for
outstanding research, which soon became the highest award in
mathematics. J.C. Fields intended it to be an international medal,
and a glance at the varying backgrounds of the fifty-two Fields
medallists shows it to be so.

Who was Fields? What carried him from Hamilton, Canada West, where he
was born in 1863, into the middle of this turbulent era of international
scientific politics? A modest mathematician, he was an unassuming man.
This biography outlines Fields' life and times and the difficult
circumstances in which he created the Fields Medal. It is the first such
published study.

A co-publication of the AMS and Fields
Institute.

Readership

Anyone interested in the history of mathematics and specifically
Fields, and the Fields medal.

Reviews & Endorsements

This highly readable nonmathematical biographical study is a triumph of
tenacity. It sheds significant light on the personal life, professional
development, and lasting legacy of the foremost Canadian mathematician of his
time.

-- Deborah Kent, Isis

John
Charles Fields is a little-known Canadian. He deserves to be better known.
Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the
Fields Medal, a fine biography and account of his career and work by Elaine
McKinnon and Frances Hoffman, may help to rectify that situation. ...
The authors of this book have done a superb job with exhaustive attention to
the details of the history, both of Fields's efforts and of the
mathematical organizations.

-- Douglas Wright, Literary Review of Canada

Here, Canada-based authors
Riehm (researcher) and Hoffman (historian) take the reader on a journey
covering the life and times of this globally minded mathematician, along with
the history of the creation of the medal, using much archival material. . . .
Recommended. Academic and general readers, all levels.

-- M.D. Sanford, CHOICE

The Canadian
mathematician John Charles Fields is remembered through the Fields Medals,
funds for which he endowed in his will, and more recently for the Fields
Institute in Toronto, but little has been known about him personally: this gap
is now filled by this engagingly written book. . . . It is well researched,
well illustrated, and valuably amplifies our record of a man who set out to
make mathematics more international at a painfully difficult time in its
history, and succeeded.

-- Jeremy Gray, Mathematical Reviews

...[Riehm and Hoffman] provide a richly contextualized picture of the
historical times in which Fields lived. Turbulent Times in Mathematics offers
an engaging narrative of Fields' struggle to further Canadian science and to
make a lasting contribution to mathematics, a subject he clearly loved.

Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the Fields Medal

Title (HTML):
Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the Fields Medal

Author(s) (Product display):
Elaine McKinnon Riehm;
Frances Hoffman

Affiliation(s) (HTML):

Publisher Blurb:
A co-publication of the AMS and Fields Institute

Abstract:

Despite the renown of the Fields Medals,
J.C. Fields has been until now a rather obscure figure, and
recovering details about his professional activities and personal life
was not at all a simple task. This work is a triumph of persistence
with far-flung archival and documentary sources, and provides a rich
non-mathematical portrait of the man in all aspects of his life and
career. Highly readable and replete with period detail, the book sheds
useful light on the mathematical and scientific world of Fields' time,
and is sure to remain the definitive biographical study.

—Tom Archibald, Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, BC, Canada

Drawing on a wide array of archival sources,
Riehm and Hoffman provide a vivid account of Fields' life and his part
in the founding of the highest award in mathematics. Filled with
intriguing detail—from a childhood on the shores of Lake Ontario,
through the mathematics seminars of late 19th century Berlin, to the
post-WW1 years of the fragmented international mathematical
community—it is a richly textured story engagingly and sympathetically
told. Read this book and you will understand why Fields never wanted
the medal to bear his name and yet why, quite rightly, it
does.

—June Barrow-Green, Open University, Milton
Keynes, United Kingdom

One of the little-known effects of World War I was the collapse of
international scientific cooperation. In mathematics, the discord
continued after the war's end and after the Treaty of Versailles had
been signed in 1919. Many distinguished scientists were involved in the
war and its aftermath, and from their letters and papers, now almost a
hundred years old, we learn of their anguished wartime views and their
struggles afterwards either to prolong the schism in mathematics or to
end it.

J.C. Fields, the foremost Canadian mathematician of his time, was
educated in Canada, the United States, and Germany, and championed an
international spirit of cooperation to further the frontiers of
mathematics. It was during the awkward post-war period that
J.C. Fields established the Fields Medal, an international prize for
outstanding research, which soon became the highest award in
mathematics. J.C. Fields intended it to be an international medal,
and a glance at the varying backgrounds of the fifty-two Fields
medallists shows it to be so.

Who was Fields? What carried him from Hamilton, Canada West, where he
was born in 1863, into the middle of this turbulent era of international
scientific politics? A modest mathematician, he was an unassuming man.
This biography outlines Fields' life and times and the difficult
circumstances in which he created the Fields Medal. It is the first such
published study.

Anyone interested in the history of mathematics and specifically
Fields, and the Fields medal.

Reviews:

This highly readable nonmathematical biographical study is a triumph of
tenacity. It sheds significant light on the personal life, professional
development, and lasting legacy of the foremost Canadian mathematician of his
time.

-- Deborah Kent, Isis

John
Charles Fields is a little-known Canadian. He deserves to be better known.
Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the
Fields Medal, a fine biography and account of his career and work by Elaine
McKinnon and Frances Hoffman, may help to rectify that situation. ...
The authors of this book have done a superb job with exhaustive attention to
the details of the history, both of Fields's efforts and of the
mathematical organizations.

-- Douglas Wright, Literary Review of Canada

Here, Canada-based authors
Riehm (researcher) and Hoffman (historian) take the reader on a journey
covering the life and times of this globally minded mathematician, along with
the history of the creation of the medal, using much archival material. . . .
Recommended. Academic and general readers, all levels.

-- M.D. Sanford, CHOICE

The Canadian
mathematician John Charles Fields is remembered through the Fields Medals,
funds for which he endowed in his will, and more recently for the Fields
Institute in Toronto, but little has been known about him personally: this gap
is now filled by this engagingly written book. . . . It is well researched,
well illustrated, and valuably amplifies our record of a man who set out to
make mathematics more international at a painfully difficult time in its
history, and succeeded.

-- Jeremy Gray, Mathematical Reviews

...[Riehm and Hoffman] provide a richly contextualized picture of the
historical times in which Fields lived. Turbulent Times in Mathematics offers
an engaging narrative of Fields' struggle to further Canadian science and to
make a lasting contribution to mathematics, a subject he clearly loved.